No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 267: Kyle Porter on a crazy 2019

Episode Date: December 18, 2019

An impromptu episode with the return of long time guest Kyle Porter, and we talk broadly and in detail about the wild year that was 2019. From Rory, to Brooks, to Tiger, Bryson, and everything in between - plus the obligatory Ryder Cup implications and a look ahead to 2020. We also take a ton of listener questions, and think back on how much things have changed in golf in the last five years.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. All right, guys, welcome back to the No Langa podcast. It got an unexpected episode today. We are in Dallas. DJ and I were in Dallas this past week and had some free time and caught up with our

old buddy Kyle Porter debriefing a crazy year of 2019. We're squeezing in one more episode here before we wrap up the year. The rest of the content is continuing to flow. If you've not seen, we just wrapped up. Tourist sauce, our travel series from Ireland, that 10 episode series is live on our YouTube channel and there's been two of three parts

of the latest season of strap, Baltimore, our flowing on our YouTube channel and then the final one will be next week, next Tuesday we drop videos on our YouTube channel every Tuesday. And if you're listening to this podcast and if you watch those videos, you're looking and if you're looking for some more golf content that is going to break the mold, our friends at Calloway, they just published a three-part video series that does break the mold in an interesting way. The series is called Forefront, and it explores some revolutionary trends

driving the future of the game. It does it through like a quirky and enthusiastic format. It does look very different than something we would do, but it's topics that we would love to be able to cover ourselves. The first one is the use of AI artificial intelligence in equipment, design like the Epic Flash Driver. The second is sustainable golf course architecture and looks into the design and the imagination

behind a reversible golf course. And third, my favorite one, the rise of interactive screen golf in golf craze Korea. I got to do this when I was in Korea a couple of years ago. I really wish I had any idea how to do a video while I was doing that. And they, you know what, I say that, but these guys absolutely killed it. It's kind of like a Wes Anderson movie meets like real housewives of Seoul,

Korea, like these women that play screen golf and are chatty and trash talking each other. It's awesome. It's short. It's easily digestible. You can find that the forefront series at CalawayGolf.com slash forefront. Again, calwaygolf.com slash forefront without further delay. Here's our podcast with Kyle Porter. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the NoLangup podcast. Maybe the O of the OG, the oldest of the OG podcast guests. We're a very impromptu here in Dallas.

We're DJ Pies with me as well. Hey, good to be here. In a rundown holiday and Mr. Kyle Porter. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Absolutely. It wasn't bacon Bacon the biggest of? He might have been. He might.

It's a close call, but you might have the most guest appearances, I think. Yeah, I think there was like a run in the early days where it was like episodes 11 through 23, it was like half of them were me. You would bacon dude, but just like going back and forth. But those are the days, man. A lot of, a lot of changes that's that we haven't done one

in a hotel room. I guess we did quail hollow, but the one that I go back to, I was gathered around our cell phone, my cell phone at Hazeltean after the ride or come. But still, like, one of my, the lowest quality audio, like the best quality pod we may have ever put out. Well, and the weird thing about that was our,

the thing I remember about that one, other than KVV almost ending my life at the end of it was, I drank like a beer and a half, and it felt like I was like, I didn't know what continent I was on. It felt like it was well-beared. It was unbelievable. We were texting Kyle, like yeah,

just come on out man, room room 804 whenever you get here And he's like God, I feel like I'm walking around into a Tommy Gady situation right now So you can confirm for the people no foul play go. Yeah, it got very normal hotel room very legal very cool Yeah, it got a little dicey, but no, it's close to my house. So this is great. Well, thanks for having us in Dallas by the way The Memphis of Texas. Well, okay. I didn't, the over under was like five and a half minutes and... That would blew it out. Hit the under, but yeah, we got... Jordan Spears talking about how there's four seasons here.

Doesn't really feel like that. What are the seasons here? Just like super hot and super cold. Yeah, that's it. There's like, I remember like the Super Bowl week. It was like ice, ice storms and stuff here and people were freaking out. Like, I thought this was supposed to be a warm place in the winter.

Yeah, it's either like a hundred or like 20. And there's like a Melbourne, generally harsh, like harsh either way. Yeah, yeah. It's tough. It's seen. It's gonna hit a hundred in Melbourne like today or tomorrow. I forget which day, I can't keep track

of the days a little week there, but it was in CT Pam, like they're the same, they're the same as they are here. No, but like What if you say what's it? There's 16 hours ahead. I don't know if that's today or tomorrow is the point and CT pan looked like you're trying to Trying to qualify for the Winter Olympic during it Yeah, I could not tell the temperature reads out there in short sleeves and some of the cappons are out there like full jackets Well reads like the the tough guy for offensive lineman.

Yeah, the poor ass tweet on that. Oh, did he say that? It was a couple years ago. I think it was 2016 Hazel team. The read that was out there in short sleeve was 55 degrees. So there's this at Hazel team in the head pros office there. Chandler, there's a whole huge poster of everyone. And you and I are standing there in the back,

like I'm filming it with a GoPro and a cell phone for some reason. And like we're all standing, we poor app is just standing there with this big smirk on its face. You can see everyone, but not one person has short sleeves on except for Reed who's hitting the opening t-shirt. Of course.

So I was going off in the car yesterday, total tangent, but he's going off in the car about how there might be more unpublished GoPro footage in the world than any other footage, just all these people who had GoPro's who were like, God, I can't wait to film this. And then they realized like, wait, I don't know how to edit things. Or that's you.

Yeah, that was good. Yeah, that was good. Where's that GoPro footage? It is God. Whenever you looked at it, I don't think. Whenever I put in NBD, but I played Augusta back in 2017. And whenever, I don't know if you guys heard that story, but whenever I played, we literally did a whole episode.

You get a little panicky about what you can take out there, what you can take pictures of, what you can, I mean, anyway. So Bacon's there, and I'm like, I don't know what to do. Like, do I take a, do I take my iPhone out there? And he goes, here, take this GoPro. And so I'm out there with the GoPro, and my catty's like,

vlogging filming with a GoPro. And then taking pictures with it and looking back, I was like, what was I doing? Like, this looks horrendous. Like, there was like two really cool surfing videos with GoPro's and the fisheye and everyone thought I'm gonna take a GoPro and use it for every walk of life. Yeah.

And then I got one and I took it to Europe and like I literally- Literally, I think had seven at one point. Yeah. I was like, I didn't use them for any. It's all terrible. It's all like fish eye. It shrinks everything else.

And why everyone got fooled in to thinking that, I think they make some stuff as non-fish eye now. But I think you're going to tell the story when you're in 15 fairway. Like this is like your favorite shot on the course and you can do your go pro to your cat. Well, I did. And I might do you know how to work this.

And he's like, well, I can figure it out. And, you know, I'm up I might do you know how to work this and he's like, well, I can figure it out and you know, I'm up like Basically where Sergio's divot was on 15 on from Sunday I teed off like 40 yards ahead of him But you know, whatever and I'm like, you know, I'm probably watered the course I'm kind of Towards the tea. Yeah exactly the tea shop And I'm I'm thinking you know, I'm on 15. I'm kind of starting to feel it on the T-Shot. Exactly. The T-Shot. And I'm thinking, you know, I'm on 15. I'm kind of starting to feel it on the second nine.

And which for me is like making a bunch of pars in a row. And, you know, that's the second nine, by the way. I got to say, yeah, you see me on brand. I got to say on brand. But, so yeah, I'm like, I'm probably going to hit it tight, make you go, you know, have this story to tell. And, and I just, I'm probably gonna hit it tight, make Eagle have this story to tell. And I just, I stand over the ball for like 50 seconds. I'm like, what am I doing?

And I finally take it back. And it was just one where like, you could tell coming down, you're like, this is not good. You remember how the president's cup, they did that whole segment about like, Azinger and Bones, I like, you know, Tiger when he's in the zone,

he just starts blinking slower. Like you were doing that, but not in a good way. It sounds like. Things were moving too slowly. I think. And so I just laid the sod over and it came up short of the water. That's a good spot, yeah.

Unbelievably. So that's something we've had to master is, we're never allowed to lay up, but like if you're in a, like a really, like a spot where it makes no sense to go for it, take the three wood out. Yeah, top it. Yeah.

And it serves as a layup. Yeah, and to do that on purpose is one thing, to do it on accident is another. Did you got on film? I ended up making par. A comfy par. Comfy par. Yeah, comfy par and then hit it to like a foot on 16 where the Saturday pin was.

Problem was it was Sunday pin. And you could have never hit it up on that shelf. No, it's impossible. You can't stop it up there. My caddy was like, wow, never seen that. Sorry, why? Anyway, we often do work in, in when I was playing Augusta. Well, I try.

You know, it's kind of a, you got to flex it at the right time. Right. You can't just, you know, roll around to everybody in town and be like, yeah, playing Augusta. Although I went to this deal the other day, we're watching a Cowboys game or something. And I didn't know the guys that well. And one of them was like, didn't, did not read about you playing a guest in,

and I was like, well, you know, you know, do you want to hear some more stories? I don't know he's read about it, but yeah, I can't confirm that, but I did play it. So yeah, I try not to, try not to flex it too often. Well, we sent a call out for questions to wrap up 2019. I think on the last pod after the presence cup,

we said this was going to be the last pod of the year, but we're kind of still a little fired up for the year. We haven't really done a decade wrap or anything like that. There's a lot, there's enough to talk about 2019. And I was thinking about this part when you're underway here, was like, when you came back on the pod, they can 2014. If you go back and look up the winners from the PGA tour that year, like we would still talk about PGA Tour golf and we were like,

hey, can we get a storyline? Like, please, can we get something? And things have changed a little bit in 2019. This was a lot happened this year. Yeah, a lot did happen. And I think the through line is obviously Tiger, is Cat, from beginning to end. But, you know, and he's always like the kind of the epicenter

of everything that stuff revolves around. But, I mean, yeah, there are so many, it's almost too much. There are almost so many storylines that I'm like, I don't even know what to focus on. Well, it's fun when tigers in this, obviously, in the scene. But things revolve around him so much that, like I think DJ you've said, it's just like a vacuum. It sucks up everything else.

And it's like, well, if tigers bag, and he doesn't win, what does it matter? Who won the memorial this year? Can't. I don't see him. You're not supposed to know the answer to that. But what have taken a second? But everything is just like, oh, Tiger, he's out in 66th of a moment, or wow, he's really struggling in 74 and you just lose, or wow, he's really struggling

in 74 and you just like lose track of everything. Well, that's what I always tell people, I cover, they're like, what do you do for a living? I'm like, well, I have two, well, I have more than two. Well, I play against them. Yeah, I play against them. I write about against them, but I have two jobs. I cover the PJ tour and you cover Tiger,

and that's like half the deal. And sometimes it's really fun. Like at the president's cup and at the masters. And sometimes it's not fun because you're writing about 75s and worst ball 66s and stuff like that. The only thing I'll say to that is I feel like we are around a corner a little bit to where the injury stuff is gone for the most part They're still you know, he's he still has injuries and whatever but we're not in

2015-16-17 territory anymore where it's like oh my every round out there. You're holding your breath It's like oh it's either he's back or he's done on depending on how every shot goes and I think we're out of that Which is good and I think this year was a little bit more, you know, he had a little, like, a little more quote unquote, quiet, 68, 69s, you know, where it's like, the world's not ending when he shoots 73. It never went really bad.

Burning down with, you know, people aren't flipping cars over when he shoots 68. Like it's, it was a little more tempered this year, which I think is a good thing. At the same time, it's fun, but I mean, it's a good thing. He literally won the Masters and then a month later, people were like, oh man, I don't know.

It might be done. It might be over. Like you can't play in cold weather. Like, he, Pebble, it was not really much of a factor, Port Rush, everyone was just like, best page was not good and everyone just like, very I thought, forgot about that he won the Masters. There was a lot of that at the Presidents Cup too, which say what you want about, you know, maybe it was genius that he sat out both sessions on Saturday or whatever, but,

you know, like every tournament, he plays, like he plays six days in a row, five days in a row, you know, like with practice rounds and whatever. Like I don't think his back was gonna fall apart if he played four days in a row out of the presence cup, but I don't know, the part, this is always the thing with Tigers, like you just never know because he doesn't let anybody really in on what's going on. He doesn't, you know, he always feels great.

He always is there to win, and so you never really have a great sense of what he's actually feeling. The only speculation we have is what he said about struggling warming up in cold weather. Yeah, that's the only thing he gave people this year is to like, yeah, I can't really get activated in cold weather. So, some...

The cat is like, not real life. I just love my boys. We don't deserve it at all. I think the interesting part for me with him is, so in the past, 01, 2001, 05, even 08, as recently as that, it's super human. Like he's existing on a different plane. And now it's almost as if he's come down to like everybody else, but he's still, he's still like the best out of all these people.

And so it almost makes it, I don't know if it's, I mean, it's not more, it almost makes it more relatable to, I mean, not like in the way that we play golf, but in the way that you contextualize him with like Rory and Capka and DJ, because before it was like, well, he's like not even, it's like not even the same deal. And now it is because of the valleys, because you see him kind of lumping around port rush and,

you know, withdrawing in the playoffs and all this different stuff. And, and he's still the best of these best guys in their prime. And I think that's what makes it, I don't know, really fascinating right now. Well, he never was, like, legitimately thinking from like his first memories, whatever, five years old, four years old, whatever his first memories are. He's always been like a superstar. He's always been written about.

He's always been, he never had like a valley until Literally like oh nine. Yeah, like not not one. He was never humbled like how do you Miss his miss his first couple shots at the Mike Douglas Taving. That's true That was a tough one and then he put it right next to the hole in tap to dead but He's the original cheater way before p. Read what? But like to take him here for. He never, like how do you, my point being, you can, a lot of people will go through like teenage years and stuff and you're still like a small person, let's say in quotes,

like you're not important yet. And then you become a big deal and you know, you kind of have ups and downs. Going your whole life without ever having ups and downs in terms of your athletic performance, being literally the best at every step you've ever been. You walk onto the PJ tour and you're the best, like the best one, and you were the best every single year until like 2009.

And your tweet like blew my mind this past weekend of you can have all the success in the world I don't know what it was. I don't want to paraphrase it Yeah, so I and this has been something I've been thinking about with Tiger for a while but like You I think the reason you see him the way he is with his boys as he kept my boys 15 times like I get it The reason you see him like that is because you can have all the achievement and success

in the world. But if you don't have a good community of people to share it with, then it comes up empty, right? And that's something that you and I, and all of us learned in high school or college or post college or whatever. And he's like, it's weird to watch somebody who's 43 years old, like starting to figure that out. It's kind of a coming of age thing,

which is a bizarre thing to say about somebody who is so accomplished professionally. So I think that's the part for me that's maybe the most interesting. Which I don't, he is lionized, like the most lionized athlete maybe ever. And I don't, he is lionized, like the most lionized athlete maybe ever. And I don't enjoy playing that role in it because he is flawed.

He is, I don't wanna give him a pass for living most of his life flat out, like being a dick. Like he would tell you that, I mean he has been. And so I don't want it to be like, wow, what an amazing story that once he got humbled, he became a great person. And I'm not gonna swear it to be like, wow, what an amazing story that once he got humbled, he became a great person. And I'm not going to swear by him being a great person, but I remember when we saw him on the range 2016 at Hazeltein, like all the top players in the world are warming up

and the cat rolled out. And he had been kind of like a recluse at that point. I mean, it was kind of weird to see him in the assistant cap and see Roy had that weird looking go-e going. And he's just sharp as goatee you've ever seen. Everything's ston- Angular goatee. Like everyone on the range stop just became this like it was, God what's it like a movie character that like comes out like Bruce like a held up Bruce Wayne comes back out in

public. And like everyone looks at him like oh my God like he's he's in public. Well, what's going on here? And to see it like that, we in knowing that week, like kind of in hindsight and hearing some things about how down he was, like not physically just like spiritually and mentally, and seeing him come back to play this role is remarkable.

It's insane. Yeah, it's his credit. Like I think that, yeah, you don't want to credit him too much because some of it is circumstantial. But I think he's also like, realized it and really kind of owned it a little bit personally. So yeah, both as like, inside the ropes for individual events and now being like a captain and assistant captain

for team events. And I would, I've obviously not been in those team rooms. I have to imagine his attitude towards these things is completely night and day from like his attitude to the 99 rider. Well, because people are like, oh, Tiger's immature, Tiger's a child. I'm like, yeah, yeah. Like, he's been worshiped his whole life.

Yeah. That's how you would act too. Like, that's not, I mean, it is on him, but some of it is not because he's just been told, yes, yes, yes, his entire life and worship, like you're talking about on the range at Hazel team, which by the way, brought my writer cup backpack from Hazel team in BD. Still hasn't unpacked it. Yeah. So good. That is so good.

Shut up, keep it. So yeah, some of that is just, I get frustrated when people are like, oh, you're so immature and it's like, yeah, you would be too, man. That's part of the story. Yeah, for sure. I will never forget.

It was for, I think it was first morning, maybe I will forget then, because I don't remember the days. I'm pretty sure that we're walking across the bridge from the range to the first tee. And Sam Torrance is walking towards us. And I was like, do look at Sam Torrance. And you looked at me like, what?

And I didn't see what was going on. And we kept walking. And a guy was on FaceTime and turns around on the bridge. And it was tired. I hadn't seen him. And I'm like freaking like, dude, look at Sam Torrance. That's really cool. Oh my god, awesome.

I can't call man shut up. That week I still look back. That's still my favorite sports experience. I've ever had, was walk around Hazel's. Well, how do you reconcile that? Because I know you've talked about how the Ryder Cup is, and I don't disagree with this, a bad viewing experience. So how do you reconcile how good that week was with?

Well, we got to go inside the ropes. Like that's the difference. I mean, it sucks that that is the case, but I don't know. If you go as a fan, you just have to have the attitude of, I'm here to cheer, and yeah, I'm not gonna see all the golf. And they do a good job of getting jumbo tronds up there

and you can see a lot of golf on screens, but like go be a part of a rowdy crowd, find a good hole with a big state. Like at the 16th hole at Hazeltein was just awesome. It was such a great scene. And that's what you gotta go in with the attitude of. And I'm just saying for me personally, like that was like the second time

I'd ever been credentialed at an event. Getting to walk through the walkways with Patrick Reed, while everyone's yelling and cheering USA Adam, Michael differently the next time around. But the hair on my neck was standing up doing that. And that's what shines through in that podcast, I think, is we're all just high on what we had just witnessed. Yeah, in that beer and a half was.

Yes. If you're, if you're playing along at home on your bingo card, that's a Memphis and diving into writer cup talk during a recap. I'm from 2019. We're, we're, we're, we do Memphis. We're working through the car. Sure. Let's do it.

Yeah, I was going to say let's start with our favorite golf memories of the year. Yeah. For me, it was Porter getting collectively just dunked on. But like misguidingly dunked on golf memories of the year. For me, it was Porter getting collectively dunked on. But like, misguidingly dunked on, which is the best time. It was the most 2019 Twitter thing ever.

It was like a complete non-sequitor, just multiplied by a million. Tell us what happened. I mean, it's during Port Rush, during the open, and I just take a screenshot of, I mean, Port Rush is unbelievable. It's unreal, and, during the Open, and I just take a screenshot of, I mean, Port Rush is unbelievable. Yeah. It's unreal, and they did this like wide view

of like the entire property out into the sea, and I just took a screenshot of it, and basically said like, imagine going from this to Memphis next week. First of all, I meant the course at Memphis, right? I was thinking about this during the Presidents' Cup because the Melbourne's kind of the same deal. Imagine going from that to the QB East.

Yeah, the QB East. Exactly. And I just got, I mean, ratioed into oblivion. I thought that it felt like Tony Allen was just repeatedly dunking on me. Someone from Memphis, like an influential Memphis person must have like quote retweeted in that. Yeah, and then like all these like newspaper columnists were like, this guy hates, you know,

the entire state of Tennessee. And I'm like, like, in part of it is just like the nuance of, well, of Twitter, but also like of just talking about golf courses. I think some of it is my fault for not realizing that my world that I exist in is not the world that everybody else exists in. So it's easy to just dive in and be like, you know, just start taking shots, which is what happened.

I did a whole apology tour 2019. It was unbelievable. Got the blue curtain out of the shed. Yeah. You know what? That might be the next sponsored content. Just apology tours. Say something great.

Boy, say something bad. And then like, yeah, I'm going on my apology tour. Rashi, if I serve for it, like it never, like it never even happened. Apology tours. Are you cool with Memphis now or is it? I guess I was praying that Oklahoma State didn't get the Liberty Bowl, so I had to go back there.

This is another one of those moments where I completely forget that you have an Oklahoma State website that covers all of Oklahoma State sports. Yeah. That's our 10th year starting in 2020. Have you ever actually talked about that on this podcast? No. I don't think so. Yeah.

No free ads. Yeah. That's a free ad. We should have been shipping off ad money for you for a log, for a log time anyway. It's a pistols firing. Yeah. Yeah. pistols firing bog dot com cover mostly football and basketball.

The occasional, you know, Ricky Ricky Top 5 finish at a major, whatever. There you go, sure. But now it's fun. I've got one full-time guy that works on it, a bunch of part-time guys. Just started a message board, welcome to 1997. So yeah, it's a fun outlet, especially for me,

I read a lot about football daring, kind of the downtime of golf season. And yeah, it's been a cool, I mean, it's, you know, in the same way that you guys have kind of built some of this stuff up, it's been cool to kind of have that as like the business. And I'm kind of running on the side and build it up and create some revenue and just provide some jobs for people.

It's been a lot of fun. God, job provider. Job creator. Job creator. You don't have to give me too much. I've been on that podcast. We talked West Virginia, Oklahoma State. Yeah, you were in.

Where were you, South Korea? South Korea, yeah. I remember you coming on and you're like, man, I just, this is a really bad time for me. Like literal time, time wise, and you're like, but you went on like 11 of our first 23 pike. I will clear out some time at 6 a.m. in Korea to talk about how Oklahoma states

about a dunk on West Virginia. But while we promise we'd get to questions and we're 24 minutes in and we haven't gotten there yet, but I didn't really organize these too much. We got a bunch this morning though. Anti-Fao-toe asks, who dumped all over their legacy the most this year? A, Cooture being cheap, B, Read Cheating,

and becoming a liability in team play. C, Brooks winning a WGC. D, Rory becoming an item of live under propaganda before dying in E, the US the usga cowtowing to the field in neutering pebble. A lot to take in there. Yeah, I mean, I think if this was an SAT you're eliminating the obvious, you know, incorrect answers.

So I think we're pretty much down to Kooch here, right? And it's got to be Kooch, because Kooch came into the year with a clean slate and Reed did not. Well, I think the Reed thing, I can't remember who had this take, it might have been Porath, but like what the president's got, the last two weeks have proved is that

none of the other stuff was like a one-off. Like this is like who he is. And I think that's important going forward. And maybe it's more important for like, Captain's picks or whatever. But, which is what made Rory's comments like weird to me. He's like, people are kind of exacerbating this

because it's read. I was like, dude, that's the point. It was like, there's a history here. That's what I said too. And I think the Rory thing was like, I just wanna like enjoy Christmas and not, and not like have a bunch of headlines. He's in or later, like, why did I do this?

Like, look at this timing of why I'm here. It totally, like I think that's all that. I think my favorite take on the read stuff was the kind of like, whole area than that. Like, you know, how would you be acting if this was someone other than Patrick Reed? It's like, you know why we don't have an answer to that? It's because nobody else does it shit. It's not anybody else. It's other than Patrick Reed. It's like, you know why we don't have an answer to that? It's because nobody else does it shit.

It's not anybody else. It's not other than Patrick Reed. It just seemingly always is him. And I don't know who, one, I don't know who does that. I'm sure there's other people that have taken some liberties with cheating on the PGA tour. I'm sure there's tons of stories out there. There's not a time with video evidence.

So I'm not sure, one who's doing that. Two, I don't know who's tons of stories out there. There's not a time with video evidence. So I'm not sure one who's doing that. Two, I don't know who's doing that with a camera. Like the heat of the, he had to feel the heat radiating from the batteries of that camera. It was so close to them. Two, doing that in front of the camera, three, seeing it and blaming the camera angle on it. Like that sequence of events doesn't happen.

If that happens to someone else, which again, I don't even know what would happen to, they would look at that and be like, I blacked out over that. I don't know what I was thinking. I know it certainly looks horrible. I regret my role in the answer. I'm like withdrawing for the tournament.

I could see that happening more than, yeah, I mean, if you had a camera angle looking straight down, like you would see that I didn't improve my life. Yeah, I think that's the thing for me is you look at some of the cuter stuff and some of the other things that have happened and it's like at some point, there was an apology, there was some sort of like,

even if it was like way too late. Yeah, way too late and not about the right things, at least there was something, with reading is just like writing like right into it. Like no effort to even attempt an apology at anything. And that's the part where you're like, come on man, like you gotta be more self-aware. The lack of self-awareness is the thing where I'm like,

that's not good. Yeah. Well, calling on read to be more self-aware, I don't think we're gonna see that. I just don't, I'm not holding my breath for that one Let's go to a car for the course. Okay question. Who's the forgot man of 2019? I got a weird one for this one the first name that came to mind and this is more of an indictment of us in this room and people in Golf media than it is the actual person

John rom indictment of us in this room and people in golf media, then it is the actual person. John Rom. Rombo. Rombo. Yeah. What's up, Rombo? Everyone calls him that. Unbelievable season.

Like, nobody's talking. He had the best second half of the year of anybody in golf. Almost unbeatable. I know it's raising my hand here. We have not covered the year out to our very well. This fall, or really, we don't cover it well enough in general. He was, like, he won like five million, but he won the race to Dubai, which was first I'm hearing

of this I think was a couple weeks ago. I mean, here's, yeah, I mean, here's five million. He wasn't a big factor in the majors and stuff, so we're not saying that. But he had an unbelievable season that we've not get enough credit to. I'm gonna call it up. Anyone know his world rank?

Three. Three. Yeah. four three. Yeah number three He and that's wild man Brooks and Rory than him or yeah, and the JT him JT Dustin Tiger Can't lay Rose and Xander tell me Fleetwood your top 10 I think the thing for me that is so amazing about rom so he wins a hinge and then he goes and wins Dubai And he wins Tory pines, he wins all, it doesn't matter what the course is, what's going on, he just wins. And you're like, that's pretty impressive.

I'm gonna be honest, I did not realize this was going on. I think he had alerted me to this. Yeah, I think he won. Let's start with the Irish Open. Yeah, these are his finishes the rest of the year. First, at the Irish Open. T11, off week. Seventh at Memphis, RIP Porter.

T3 at the Northern Trust. T5 at BMW. T13 at the Tour Championship. That's his worst finish in this stretch. Grandad, 30 guys. But second at the BMW PGA. Oh, sorry, Miss Cut at the Dunhill Links, which is kind of a weird event anyways.

Then he wins the Spanish Open. Then he wins the Spanish Open, then he wins the DP World in Dubai, and then he finishes second at the hero. Sick, so is that a good idea? I think his T11 was at the open, maybe? Yes, correct. So, I mean, yeah, his second half was, I mean, it was better than,

it was the best second half in golf. Yeah. Oh, sorry, and he finished second the week before LeHitch also. Yeah. That's nuts. Yeah, it was better than, it was the best second half in golf. Oh, sorry. You finished second the week before LeHitch also. Yeah. That's nuts. Yeah, it was wild. I was not aware of this.

This was good. So my, that's a great answer. My forgotten man, and it's a little, I don't know, some of this crystallized for me in the second half of the year, I think it's a web. Yeah, that's a good, that is a very similar take to the rom take. Because I think, I think we Yeah, that's a good, that is a very similar take to the rom take. Because I think we do the sing with Webb where we're like, ah, you know, nice guy, you know, he won that US open,

there was that bird thing, you know, oh, this is, Oh! Enjoy the jail cell panel. Oh, I'm in a position. That might be my moment of the decade. I know, I know we're not doing that, but that's the moment of the decade. That's the moment of the decade. That has to be. So we have all these talking points when it comes to guys, and I think those are webs.

And then you look at him, and you're like, he's like one of the 12 best guys in the world. But we don't, I don't think we think of him like that. And some of that for me came out during the writer cup last year when he takes down Justin Rose in Europe. That was a big deal. Some of that for me came out during the Ryder Cup last year when he takes down Justin Rose in Europe. That was a big deal. And he's just, he's super consistent. He had a really good year, you know, I don't know if he's underrated, but we don't think about him being as good as he actually is.

I think that's very fair. He had four second place finishes, four different second place finishes since the Canadian open this summer. Well, and where I come back to on this, like, what the USGA, what the only thing they've really addressed in the last, what, like, 20 years is like, yeah, let's stop Web Simpson from making putts. Don't let him put his putter in his belly. Like, he's already up against it, like he doesn't hit it far. Yeah. The swing is, I mean, it's, it's not good. The swing is good until, like, the last 20% and the follow through looks just really ugly. Yeah. mean, it's not good. The swing is good until like the last 20%

and the follow through looks just really ugly. Yeah, it's a good, it's obviously a good fun. Right, right, right. He doesn't hit it far and he puts, like he hits his irons amazingly and he puts the lights out and they're like, yeah, we're gonna, like, we need to address this. Like, you can't, you can't put your putter in it.

Yeah, it's just a bad look. It's just a bad look. It's just a bad look on the rules of the game. You got a web proof of some of this stuff. And it took him a while to get it figured. I didn't realize it was going to be that big of a drop off. I've tried anchoring and it does not work for me. It feels awful.

So I was kind of like, hey, these guys are going to figure it out. They're going to be fine. And Adam Scott and Webb have paid the price. Like it has hurt them a lot. And to come back, find a new way to put is, and he's left in the world now. I mean, it's earned. Like, he fell all the way to,

like at least almost outside the top 40 as of even early last year. Some of this is just marketing or whatever, but you think about guys that are ranked well below him, whether that's Ricky or Spieth or whatever, and you're like, I mean, just statistically, webs a better player than those guys. Yeah, no doubt.

And he really improved, I mean, he finished, I think he finished fifth at the Masters this year, which has just got completely lost. He's never played that well at Augusta, so I don't know. There's a number of different guys that you could say for this question, but that would be mine. I think from mine, probably the most obvious one is Spief. I mean, he's outside the top 40 in the world,

which is unsettling and disappointing. We should have invited him to this holiday. Yeah, we should have. He might be down in jubes, celebrating with the boys, but. My boys. With my boys. but boys with my boys So I mean sorry web fell to 79th in the world. I think at one point continue. That's what I was looking at Speak for me is is you know, it's not forgotten now

Yeah, and that that was gonna be my comment. Yeah, yeah Exactly so from a true forgotten man standpoint It might be kind of a weird one and I don't know why it popped into my head But after the open last year Francesco Molinar, I looked like he was gonna be an absolute just monster every single week was gonna be there. And he's still one at one hill. Yeah, so that's probably a little unfair.

He almost died after the match. Tiger dumped him in race Creek. Yeah, that was it. Ray race Creek. Ray race Creek. So I think he's up there, and then the other one I would have on there is, and I know there's injuries in whatever,

but Jason Day has been kind of a non-factor. For somebody who looked, I know Jason Day gets dumped on a lot, but that season it was at 2016, he was unbeatable. He was by so far in a way the best player in the world and the fact that we just don't even think about him anymore is kind of weird if nothing else. Yeah, I mean, Speed's year, I do wanna come back to Speed. Here we go.

I mean, it's not good. It's not far from his best year, but it wasn't, it's not like missing cuts, it's not a complete disaster. Third at the PGA. Third at the PGA was weird. That would just be like, I don't understand. I followed him and Brooks for 18 on Saturday.

And, Speed, if he hit the center of the club face one time, then I must have been like in the bathroom or something. Because, I just, but isn't that the best part? And that makes it so fun to walk. It is, it is the best part. And no, it makes it so fun to walk. It is. It is the best part. I think the frustrating part for him has to be that he wasted his best putty and season of all time. It was unreal.

Like people talk about, many people are saying, people talk about 15, people talk about 17. That, a lot of that stuff was, was, was teed a green. And people are like, oh, it makes all the puts. Well, look at the stats. And this year he actually did make all the putts and he just didn't get anything out of it. And that's got to be frustrating for him. I think there is something to being like having a balance

to like your ball striking taking a dip. You have opportunities to gain more strokes on the green. Yeah, I haven't thought that through completely. I'm sure Mark Brody could poke a hole at that, but I just, I think like, you see like Greg Chalmers, Rick's always very high in strokes game, but he's missing green. He's missing greens and hitting.

And hitting to the gel. Yeah, hitting to distances where you're making a lot of bars, right? So if you're Rory, and you're having a bunch of 15 footers, and if you're not making them above average percentage wise, you're just not gaining shots of the putter. So, but you're playing for your life, who do you want?

You had great tellers or Roy? Roy was like 27th and puttin' this year. That's, I think the best, we're gonna get to like who had the best year, and we'll get to that. Roy's putting the shirt in insane. Yeah, it was, I mean, if he's in the top 50s, one in three times.

Yes. I like this one from Ken Ryan. Well, can I get, go on a spieth? You from Ken Ryan. Well, are we going to get going with Keith? You're the host. Okay, whatever you want. I, my point being, I just haven't had a chance to talk about something yet. I know.

Oh, no, it's tough. You can be on two sides of this, right? I mean, if you think he's done, like raise your hand like if, if it wasn't in the room thing he's done, like forever. Is he making it back? Is he gonna be at top, like he,

so he finished his first five years of his career. The worst he finished in the FedEx Cup was 15th. Okay, past two years, I've been 31st and 44th. Like not like outside the top 100. I mean, it obviously is two worst years. It's clearly bad. Do you guys think he's gonna be that player

for the rest of his career or the guy that finished in the top 15 for five straight years? I mean, one one of them top 10 and and four of them. I think a simpler way to say like do you think shout out to Patrick Reed? Do you think he's gonna be like a top five player on tour again? I do. I do too. I do too. I don't know that it makes. I could very much see the other side of the argument. I can see. I can see why people would say no.

For sure. But nobody I don't why people would say no. For sure. But nobody, I don't think it's saying no, is maybe your point. So there are people on Twitter that they used to like done. Just done done? For sure, done done. Was it 24, 25? Yeah, 26 I think.

26? He was like 19 for seven years, I think. Like he summoned it for the majors this year. The thing for me with speed, and this is the double ed short, is the thing that makes him great is how smart and kind of psychotic he is about the way he thinks. And that's also the thing. He stands over the ball right now and you look at him and you can tell you're thinking

about 15 different things right now. And that's the whole deal. Like, if he can just somehow figure out how to not think about anything, I think that he, yeah, I think he'll be a top five top 10 guy again. Fingers crossed. It's golf is way better when he's doing his weird neurotic stuff on Sunday afternoons.

I mean, that, that, that, the absolute best. I say that with complete sincerity. The final, was anything better than the final round of Burkdale in the last, like, it was awesome in. The final was anything better than the final round of Berkdale? In the last, like, it was awesome. In the last five years. Or even the final round of Augusta when he was in 2018. And trying to just like resurrect himself, it's just the best.

Shout out to Kat for healing his wrist in 2016, or whatever that was. 2015. Really? Really? Yeah, it's popped a fact. Really? All right, move it. Anything else? 2015 really really yeah, it's popped effect really All right move it anything else us that's why I could do all right Ken Ryan on Twitter did Matthew Wolf kill Bryson and we're actually seeing an imposter program by Microsoft

That's really yes, we're no Just did I don't know if that's really yes or no. Porter just did. Porter just did the drop the AI commercial. Drop the fake ball thing. That's a deep cut. I don't know if this is really there's an answer. I was expecting way more from beefed up Bryson than what we got.

He just looked like he had a big Thanksgiving. That's about it. He was kind of nuking the ball, though, also. Yeah, like when I'm at my heaviest, I hit the ball further. When my waist expands, I hit it a lot further. It's a balance I have to try to find in life. Like, am I okay being fat right now?

Because I'm actually hitting it pretty good. What if he, I'm not suggesting that this is going to happen, but what if it does? Like, what if his career just goes completely off the rails and we're look back at this in 20 years. Like yeah, this guy was fucking awesome, man. He came out one like what, six times? Like he was incredible.

And then he did this thing where he said he wanted to be like an Instagram fitness model and he just completely went off the rails. Like that would be amazing. There's something too, if he's, we've heard some rumors on this gain and ball speed, whatever, there's something to like gains. Oh, okay, like murder the ball in the PGA tour.

Just like murder it and then find it and then hit it up and make some putts. Like that probably is what he's, that's probably his rationale. I need to hit it further. Well, and that's what is interesting about, not to go back to President's Cup in Melbourne, but it was so different than everything else those guys play.

And it felt like to me, it took, you know, three, even four days for some of the best guys in the world to figure out like what they were doing. And that was fascinating. And for Bryzen, he played one time before the singles. I mean, I don't know, I don't know what that says. I don't know if that was a, I don't know why that decision was made, but it felt a little like what you're saying. He just mashes it and then goes and finds it. It was funny to see how like none of the US players prepared for the press

and scuff. Ricky got married and took a couple months off of playing golf. Bryson went and beefed up and his first like a real event back is playing the press and scuff. They made it as hard on themselves as they possibly could. One thing I always forget about Bryson, and I know it's like the one thing, it's like the top line of his bio, but when he had that shot on, I think it was Sunday in the singles, and he had that downhill bunker shot, the awkward stance, and Azinger's like, yeah, this is gonna be pretty tough when your sandwich is the same like that you're six-hour. I was like, yeah, I always forget about that.

Even with the wedges, like, God, that's fucking weird. Well, it just speaks to, it only pops up for weird shots like that, man. Well, you don't need that much creativity on a lot of shots on tour. So, I mean, I think Bryson's probably gonna have a lot of PGA tour success in his life and not a lot of major championship success. This is again, just the dunking continues.

Other than TPC Southwood was Royal Bever the best course played on tour this year. Also one of the net par golf was compared in contrast WGC Memphis with Saudi Arabia. Don't get fired. That's a double fired moment. Michael Lord, who is the calendar player of the year? Calendar. So not the season, but calendar, 2019 player of the year. So from Saudi Arabia to Australia, it's an interesting question. It is. It's basically just the Brooks Rory conversation has changed on this in the last couple months. Yeah, I might go ahead.

I would have said Brooks, the only thing that matters is majors. Brooks had a better year. And still, only one of them, but an unbelievable year in the majors. Like Roy played the best golf this year. I know. He did.

I think that's the take. And I think that, you know, big shocker, you're coming to this podcast with me on it for pro-Rory takes. But I mean, statistically, like he had the best stroke-scan season outside of Tiger on the PJ, since we've been doing stroke-scan. Yeah. I mean, that's not nothing. And we can't, I don't know, man, we can't do the thing where it's like, these are the only four events that mean anything. That's not how it is. The players is, and this is, this is sort of my deal with Ricky is like, he won a players and he did it with like five birdies in the last six holes. We can't just like erase that. Like that happened, you know, and same deal with Rory this year.

The Rory thing, I mean, it's weird because he's, it's almost James Hardenish, right? Or it's like, Rory or CZ, and I think we don't think about it in terms of Rory or CZ and postseason because the four majors are in the middle of the year. But it's a little James Hardenish of like, he is just the best guy in the world of the year, but it's a little James Hardenish of like, he is just the best guy in the world

during the regular season, and then at least in the majors in 2019, you know, he wasn't very good. And I don't know what to do. I don't know how to reconcile that. Well, God, this is, I could already tell this it's gonna be a bad comparison,

but like leading up to my like, USA M. Qualifier this year. They're really yeah. A week. I played a week. Listen, just give me a second. There we go. I said, I get it. No, we're gonna make, I'm gonna bring this together.

Give me a second. I played five rounds of golf in a row. When you get to get it, it's trying to do our sauce man. You know, it's just things are tough. Let me bring it around. It changes your mentality. Let me bring it around. I played your mentality. Let me bring it around. I played five rounds of golf in a row

leading up to it that were as good as I could play. I shot under par five straight rounds. And my thought process was like, shut up to me. I gotta do that again. And this is the one that matters. So the thought, the thinking of like, wow, I played unbelievable golf, all that. And you go and you go to tee it up in the major

and like, oh yeah, like that didn't really matter. Like none of that carries to this point. How many times can you go to tee it up in the major and like, oh yeah, like that didn't really matter. Like none of that carries to this point. How many times can you go to the well and play great golf when you've done it like five weeks in a row and then like the six that's like the masters is like, oh shit, like yeah. It kind of can double down on you. You've added pressure on yourself

and now you have an expectation to it. I think that something like that would contribute. I'm sure he'd, because you're only gonna peak so many times in a year. I just don't think that you can attribute him peaking so much in PJ Tor events and not in majors strictly to like the pressure got to him. He wants it too much.

I think there just has to be ebbs and flows to a season and it happened to be at the wrong times for him this year. I guess, I guess so. How many majors does he want? Four. Yeah, you can clearly do it. Right. I think I agree with you. I think it's a good point. And, You can clearly do it. Right. I agree with you.

I think it's a good point. And I think about this. The USAM part, especially. Yeah. What were your scores again? Well, it was one round. I forgot that it was too round of it. That's the other thing.

You got to keep the calendar straight as well. So he's got that on his head. You know, how many days are these tournaments? Is it a four day tournament? Is it three day tournament? You got a Roy's got to think about all that. I think the heaviest to get it. Yeah.

The heaviest thing for me with him is thinking about, like, how does he feel the Monday after all these masters where he's come up short? You know, because you're like, and not like, the, it feels so far away. And then you get there and it goes by so fast. And then you gotta wait enough. It just, that's gotta wear on you internally,

even if you don't see it. It's just like the Jack's Beats Pretty Challenge. For sure. When you don't birdie the 10th hole and you gotta go play the other eight holes. And you gotta, there's good for the mush. Was it Big Randy the Birdie at first time? Yeah, it was.

It's the only person that's birdie. Randy Randy ruined you know someone brought up Brooks's Brooks one of the WGC kind of ruining his legacy Randy ruined his legacy the other day because he had nine birdies the jack speech birdie challenge blah blah blah We've been trying to birdie every hole once at least once per year and Randy had nine birdies Total for the year and nine different holes. And then he accidentally chipped it out of four to his second birdie in the year. I think he and I have crossed off the same number of holes now, and I have maybe four XD about a birdie's he has.

It's unbelievable. His efficiency is unbelievable. Bring this back to Rory. I don't remember if he said this publicly, but when I was talking to him a couple months ago, and right after the player of the year stuff, KenBD. Yeah. And Brooke and that he had won. And he said something interesting,

and was just like, dude, honestly, there's one guy who's seasoned, I would trade mine for this year. Like who do you think it is? That's beef. Tiger. Tiger. It was tiger. He's like, he's it is? That's Keith. Tiger. Tiger.

It's Tiger. Yeah. He's the only guy who's seasoned I would trade mine for. SPAY. And I was like, man, that's, you know, for as much as we obsess over, like, the majors over other events, like, the guy actually, and I didn't, it didn't sound like lip service of life, you know. And I know we kind of make fun of her for being team live under par now,

but that's what he value. Like value's playing like really good golf. He's like, I can look back at the season with ultimate pride on how I played. Like of course I didn't play well in the majors, but I wish those have gone differently, but I played as good golf as I could have. Yeah, interesting.

I thought the, it's not golf-related, but I thought the moment at Port Rush was just, I thought that was unbelievable. I thought it in the moment, and I thought the moment at Port Rush was just, I thought that was unbelievable. I thought it in the moment, and I think it may be even more so now because it was just so humanizing. And it was such a, I just think, I don't know, like some of these guys, they get just kind of out of their world, and they're like, they're just so insular and so protected, or whatever. And that was just like the most vulnerable thing I've seen. And I don't wanna overstate how vulnerable it was.

But that was such a real thing. Dude, I talked to him about that too. And he's like, I didn't understand until that back nine charge, my relationship. He's like, I have an interesting relationship with Ireland and Northern Ireland and Tony. Very complicated, we couldn't even scratch the surface on that.

And he's like, I didn't understand how much people cared about me. And I felt that on that back nine. Like, I felt like the whole country was cheering me on. And like, I couldn't help it be emotional at the end of it falling short. It was cool. Yeah, like that was seriously cool.

And it's like a, it's almost like a big ran, hey, you peed in the potty, like, he was trying to make the cut. Like, it was, it that was like seriously cool. And it's like a it's almost like a big ran. Hey, you peed in the potty like it was trying to make the cut. Like it was it wasn't like it was about it. It was more than that. It was about more than golf. I mean, that sounds so fucking lame, but it's true. Like that was that was a. Yeah, when you say moment of the year, like, you know,

I know you you would think that's like very positive things and highlights and whatever, but just like most visceral moments of the year for me, like that's up there in the top, two or three. And I think some of what makes that moment great, I think is also what hurts him in other areas. And we've talked about this a ton, but just like he's very self, I mean, he's like the opposite of Reed

and he thinks about a lot of this stuff. And I think that it just, in the same way that it works against you at the, you know, USA, I think it works against him in a lot of ways because I think, compared, this was a question from DJ Puy that just came in, comparing contrast, Sully's mental state between read and Rory. I'm gonna go, of course. But I think, I think, Cap can just go see his major, so he just shuts his mind off and whatever. And Rory is like, he just can't.

He does now. And I, and I got out in front of this. I think the back nine at the PGA for Brooks this year, I think it changed it. He has never been punched in the mouth in a major. He has blind success. He has nothing but I've beaten you. When he's ever, when every time he's been there,

he's won. Yeah. And Rory went through this. I'll base, I mean, I was close call to 2010 PGA. The once Rory started being in contention at majors, he won them all. He's four for five. But yeah, like he's like, so the,

I think it's within three strokes going into a Sunday He's four for five on Wednesday and the one was 2011 masters. I assume Another yeah, yeah, what about the recent masters the very lost to read he I don't think he was within maybe he's four for six Yeah, he was fine a group right yeah, but and we'll see with Brooks of course he could wait to four down though Yeah, you might be right. But like he was unflappable in these events until like, and Pebble, go back and watch me putty mist. That was big Randy's take. And I think he was joking at the time,

but like man, how much is this, how much is this major victory gonna hurt Brooks's mental state? Like, with the way he struggled down the stretch. Well, I mean, I remember when he walked, it was the par three at Beth Page. I forget what whole is it. Is it 14 or something like that? Where he made Bogey and like the New York thing.

I mean, he was up by like eight and all of a sudden it was like three. And the fans were starting to kind of turn against him a little bit like, oh, this might get exciting. And he had a facial expression that I like tweeted something about it. And everyone thought I was crazy and didn't see it.

But I was like, whoa, he looks like he just got punched in the face and didn't have a plan. And he hasn't won a major since then. I don't know, there's been like two. It's not really fair. But, and he played pretty well as well. But he didn't close it. And like, Rory's been there in major,

like since then, and been around it and not been able to close it. Like, that is what I feel like is contributed more to Rory not winning the last five years. It starts to double down on you, start thinking, like, wow, I've done this before, why have I done 10 straight majors, I haven't won one? Now 11 straight, I haven't won one, 12 straight.

It's gonna be interesting to see how Brooks handles that. Obviously, it's not run out yet, but now that he's been punched in the mouth and not won, how has that effect here? So if you're drafting, if you just have to say, I'm taking number one pick, I'm taking the, who's gonna be the best golfer in 2020? It depends on how you'd succumb.

Honestly, I think it's like, if you do it a major's pool right now, and it's like, that's different question. It is different. Well, I don't know. I think it's first Rory. I think it's the same exact thing. I think if we're talking about the four majors,

I'd take Brooks. What about Tiger? I think from beginning to end, it's like a real conversation. It's a sweepstake. I know. Yeah. Full season.

I just don't think Tiger's gonna play enough. I know. Full season, I think Roy's gonna be the best player again. Like he's so rich. Which of those gets you more excited, though. Between Tiger and Roy? No, no, no, no. Between like who plays better in the majors

and who plays better in the whole. Oh, yeah. Seat shirt. Like the majors. Yeah. I don't know. I get your point and I totally agree that like, it's dangerous and pointless to say like the majors are the only thing that matters.

But maybe this is kind of glowing brain, but when you keep pulling the thread, it's like, yeah, when you go talk to anybody though, it's all they talk about, so maybe, yeah, maybe it kind of is the only thing that matters. I know and I hate that it's become that. And I don't know which, maybe it kind of is the only thing that matters. I know, and I hate that it's become that. And I don't know which, I mean, it's always been that.

But majors didn't even use to exist. Well, way back. Yeah, but I just mean even the last 30 years. Yeah, no, I know. And a lot of that's Tigers fault because he won so many of them, but I don't know. No, I totally understand that. I think, I don't know.

I think I would pick Rory just overall, like going into 2020. Are we concerned about the kept get injury at all? I don't think so. I mean, he missed what last year's masters were the rest of the injury in one, two of the majors, like a, because people forget. Yeah, legitimately.

Kind of superhuman, we're forgetting the body. We're forgetting the body. Yeah, yeah. All right, let's move, let's change gears. I don't know if this is, if anybody will have anything off the top of their head, but this is a really good question. From Evan Park, what's the most absurd tournament golf

hole of the year? I saw this one and I didn't have one off top of my head. Most absurd golf hole. Like absurd meaning, just preposterous. Yeah, I guess. That would have required me to watch a lot more golf than I did this past year. But you have to see kind of another course, right?

I would think it's got to be something at the Mexico course. Yeah. I would think, but I don't know the whole. One of the Mexico holes where the greenside bunkers are above the green surface. I think that's pretty sick. I was thinking about getting like really starting to piss people off

and being like, 10 at Riviera. The seventh at Augusta. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. 10 at Riv would trigger people too much. But all right, well let's move on.

It's a good question. Acapoco VIP. Very cool. If you could bring back any tournament to any tour schedule, what would it be? A tournament that's gone away, if you could bring back any tournament to any tour schedule, what would it be? A tournament that's gone away, if you could bring one back. I'd probably make the Memphis event, A.I. A non-DVGC again.

Bring that. I would, like, the American Express, like, went to Ireland. I was thinking about that, except I don't know enough about it. I don't really remember watching it. Because that was my first instinct, too. But then it was like a Mount Julie. Yeah, the golf course was not good.

And that's where the ice opens when next year. Yeah. I just think like obviously there's million reasons why these things don't happen. But like we're not in that business. So like we can tell you what the events we'd like to see as fans. And the idea of going WGC somewhere in the UK,

into the Scottish Open, into the Open Championship makes like almost too much sense. Yeah. For sure. Is it two old man of me to go the North South? No, I love that. I love that. I just don't know. I don't know. Play that, right? It's just lost a lot of it's lost there. Yeah, for sure. But that was an event that I I mean, 80 years ago, everybody played, it was a big deal. And that sort of goes along with my point about, like, I hate the fact that the majors are just everything,

because there's plenty of other, like, tournaments are as good as the players that are in them and the courses that they're at. And so I just wish we had more hero challenges. Good. And the courses that they're at, I wish we had more more hero challenges and the courses that they're at I wish we I wish we had more great tournaments at great places with really good players and it just It's become just you know four or five events a year and and that's all we talk about

I'm gonna I'll give a shout out to Tron. I know who'll be with me on this one If you can bring back any any tournament. I'm gonna say the codec challenge Codec challenges sweet. What is it? It was like a less complicated version of the A on risk reward challenge. So like they took one whole each week and it was your aggregate score and the winner got a million bucks.

Didn't Ricky play in it? Ricky played in a playoff with Troy Merritt. Yeah. Disney because they had tied like 10 or a while. And it was literally a million dollar playoff. Yeah. People forget this. When we saw Ricky at...

People have never heard of this. I think I literally the first up here. We saw Ricky at North Barric, no big deal. Tron and I went up to him and we're having a beer afterwards. Like, can we talk about the Kodak challenge? He's like, whoa. Nobody has brought that up. Because he lost.

Troy Merritt won the $1 million plan, which was like, Troy probably probably needed it. I think that probably worked out the way that's supposed to, Carmically, but yeah. Got a challenge for that. We didn't properly do a leak on our president's cup recap.

We missed a couple things, it was just natural that was gonna happen. We didn't even talk about, the fact that they could have tied. And like, very much looked like they were gonna tie and like nobody realized it until the last two hours of the broadcast. I refused to believe that they would have

allowed the whole thing. That was a good take. Yeah, that's... I refused to believe that. Expanded. Well, the conspiracy would be that they changed it. This is not what I truly believe. Let me throw a disclaimer at that.

Damn it, I thought this one was really. Let me throw a disclaimer. This is purely fun conspiracy. It would be that they put that in the rules to say, like, yeah, if it's tie, like it's just a tie, so that they could then change it on the spot and look very flexible and look like. You know what, if this is what the boys want,

that we're doing. Yeah, the boy's want to keep playing. is what the boys want. We're doing it. My boys want to keep playing. Well, my boys want to keep playing too. Let's do it. And like they would have been this heroic moment. What I think probably actually happened, I could probably research this, but haven't, is after the, was it 2003, the South Africa one,

when it was going to darkness and basically, I think the players behind the scenes were kind of like, you know, we're not coming back tomorrow. So like, you guys do what you got to do. Like, this thing's over. And then they had the whole force, like, Jack and Gary, like, I think we should share the cup. And Jack's got a Gary player accent.

Where's KVV, like, Vita? Yeah. Yeah, maybe Jack said I should share the cup. I think that's a great idea. Oh, that's a marvelous idea. And so I'm guessing what happened was like the captain's agreement that they, people reference. I'm guessing they changed it after that

to say like, okay, going forward, if it's high, it's a tie. Having said all of that, if you get to a situation where you have the best president's cup, competitively that you've had since then, where you've been marketing this tiger versus Ernie playoff as the greatest moment in the history of the president's cup. And the tie will be broken. You and using the slogan literally the tie will be broken.

You have tiger woods as the captain. You have tiger woods who's undefeated, three and a half, playing like as high of a level as like, you could see. Realistically imagined. Yeah. You have it on the best golf course. You have three and a half-ish hours of daylight still.

You're on the golf channel at one in the morning. Like, I don't think you're preempting anything else. I obviously can't say the same for Australian TV. I'm sure that's a whole different can of worms. But like, the fact that you'd be like, okay, thanks for flying guys. But we'll share the cup and we'll see you guys in Equal Hollow.

You know, there's no way that that could have happened. But that's where you proposed that, and you're like looking at me like, right? They're like, like, scrap the agreement. I'm like, dude, have you been paying attention? Like they miss the boat on everything. You think they're there's some glowing, weird back room agreement that they're gonna go back, like scrap it at the last set.

I just don't get how, like I don't get how Jack and Gary quote unquote could say, yeah, I don't know, fuck it, man. Like let's just have a tie. And everyone's like, okay, cool. You guys cool with that? Sounds good. Like I don't get how they couldn't just say, do the I don't know, fuck it, man. Like, let's just have a tie. And everyone's like, okay, cool, you guys cool with that, sounds good. Like, I don't get how they couldn't just say, do the exact opposite of that. Well, why wouldn't you just plan on that, though?

Like, you have all this that goes into this event. Well, all the, you know how much time they spend, like, figuring out where the hospital is, and money, all the money, everything that goes into this event, and the best thing to come up with is like, yeah, let's just tie. Like, no, no, no, no winners. There's not gonna be any, we won't be able to take this event seriously.

Let's just call it a tie. The real like revealing thing will be if they don't have anything in place for 21. That's what I was going to say. Right? Like, okay, here's a warning. Yeah. Didn't happen, but you could see what this is, you know, you could see what could happen. Let's change this now.

It was a blowout for like, you know, 14 straight years. And so nobody, I don't, maybe nobody thought of it. I don't know, but like, if you go into 21 and you don't have at least like, hey, 15 to retain it, 15 and a half to win it, like the Ryder Cup, then you can start believing in the conspiracy. Yeah, right. I mean, that would be crazy.

What, so the other question then becomes, we were talking about this a lot on Sunday morning, I believe in the conspiracy. Yeah, right. I mean, that would be crazy. So the other question then becomes, we were talking about this a lot on Sunday morning. Before I realized, I think that it could end in a tie, I was like, oh yeah, there was that awesome playoff. It just goes right into a playoff. So we're texting back and forth like, okay, well, who are you sending out? Like this thing could very much tie. Like who are you sending out?

And I'm curious, who would you send out from the international team? Like let's say that, you know, what? Sung God. Who? After what we saw Sunday, I would say that. I would have said, versus a cat. Like I would have said Abe, like going into,

I thought he played the best from what I could tell from the television broadcast. Sung, Sung Jay is very, he's a bad dude. He's a monster. He's awesome. Yeah. And like showed, this is, yeah have very much P in the potty, but like showed some like real emotion,

and like was pumping the crowd up and stuff. Like, all right, now I feel like we're starting to get to know this guy. He's gonna be around for a long, long time. Yeah. Whether or not the tour wants to acknowledge that or not. And like that is, like a, that was a good introduction for him, for people to actually see what he's capable of.

And then the cat sends himself out, has to. Be sick. Do you know how it like, it has to, right? Yeah, I would think. I think that's what everybody else on the team would also think. Like, it wouldn't be weird to, like, the cat is not, what's the right way to say. Like, he's the most confident person in the history

of the world, but I don't get the sense that he's like, like I think he would feel awkward almost being like, I don't know, guys, like, the way he played, I go, like I'm playing pretty good. The way he played Sunday was complete control. Yeah, like I would, like legitimately, the little things you notice, like when he walks that slowly into a putt,

blinks slowly, like, I was like, he's gonna make, he's stalking, literally stalking the putt, like when he. Like, I was like, he's gonna make, he's stalking, literally stalking the putt. Like when he walks around, when he walks around, I'm like, twirls his putter and stuff. I don't feel that confident in him. Like when he is, like, as quite, like,

legitimately like he's a tiger, like, creeping up on a putt, I'm like, oh, that's going in. Like, as 100% going in. And the way he played was just so, like, he got out in front, and he didn't, he wouldn't let A back in it. He just, he bogeyed a couple of par threes, but that was like the only, that was early

in the after that. Yeah, but his strategy, he was just, he was just defending the two up, defending the two up. The putty had on, what was that? 13 or 14? The five for the front of the green. That was sick. I mean, that was unbelievable.

So, yeah, I would have been a Sanjay tiger poyoff would have been sweet. I think so and someone out there like that, I'm not saying that would have flustered tiger, but it is, it does create a, oh, dude, I better beat this guy, scenario. It's different than, it's a different kind of pressure. It's different than even seeing like Adam Scott

or someone he's seen for the last 15 years. Right. Anyways, it didn't happen in a period of time. But it could have. It was possible, but. And the ineptitude of like coming up with this event and actually giving it the possibility to tie, it blows my mind.

Like, you know how much of a riot that would have been in 2019 on Twitter if they had a tied? People, like you said, I've never watched that much golf consecutively, I don't think. Yeah. And if that would ended up tied, you know, pissed off everyone's been. Do you know, pissed off everyone. Do you know how pissed my wife would have been?

I covered it for four straight days. Like the only event, and I'm not comparing these two outcomes by any means, but the only event that I felt that glued to the TV. I love these discrimers for you guys. This is experience podcasting. It's, I'm not comparing it, but let's go ahead. Yeah. The USAM.

The other thing, yeah, exactly. Yeah, if Solid would have gotten to the end of that first day of USA of Qualifier, no, if the only event I remember being like that glue to the TV was 2009 British Open with Tom Watson. Oh my God. Like, imagine getting to the end of that. They're like, all right, we're tied. That's it.

I guess you both wins. You guys both get a jug. Again, not to hammer this home, but they had the best format. Like sending each put a man in the envelope and you go out and play one on one for your whole team, that was unbelievable. That's insane.

There's nothing else like that in golf. No. And you just got rid of that in favor of a tie. All right, let's move on. Please change it. Ben's insane. There's nothing else like that in golf. No. And you just got rid of that in favor of a tie All right, let's move on. Please change it Ben Woodward So one of the big things one of the most exciting things I think the summers can be a little Lazy a little you know the dog days of the summers can be a little a little bad You get into the three M's the the Reno's that you's, that type of stretch. The season can be a little easy to check out, but this year we had young hove, we had Matt Wolfe, we had Morakawa.

Ben Woodward referencing that out of Hovelin, Morakawa, Matt Wolfe, who do you think has A, the most wins? B, finishes highest in the FedEx Cup this year and see it comes closest to winning a major. In basically, I think the question is, who's got the best game of, and most promise of those three? So I covered, shot out to Pistols Firing, but I covered both of these guys who were in there right?

I joined the message board. Welcome to 1997. Careful. I covered both of these guys in college and it always felt like wolf. Like he was always like not only the better guy but also the most charismatic Matt, he just the whole deal. It's a more fun to read for. Yeah, totally.

Like he was like hobbling was a star and he was a superstar. And that was very apparent in college. But Sean Martin like tracked their final years at OSU and every tournament that they played in, it was the same. It was the same. Their scores were the same. They were doing the same stuff. And then I think if you look at the numbers from,

just since they've been on tour, like, Havelin does the stuff that you need to do to be successful in the PGA tour better than those other guys. And that's Struxgand off the tee. Tita Green. Like he's not as good of a putter, I don't think, but he's going to have weeks where he is. I think the Havelin might be the guy out of those three.

I think that Havelin is definitely the safest bet because he drives it really far and very straight. And I think Wolf would even tell you, like, he's going to be a streakier player. Yeah. I don't think he's designed his game to be high floor, right? Clearly has a high ceiling. Comes out first week that he has a new caddy on the bag and as at the 3M and goes out and wins it.

Which is, that was kind of the story of like, like, wins it with swag. Like, yeah. That was kind of the story of JT's earlier career, right yeah that was kind of the story of of JT's early career Right yeah early on in his career super streaky. He'd miss three cuts in a row you go win and He is figured out. I mean he like There's no holes now, so I'm curious to see if wolf can kind of like shore up those holes where they exist Well, here's the thing with wolf and I was talking about this with a fellow, I play with him this week, and I play another European

tour player at Sean Crocker was playing with us, and he's like, dude, here's the thing with Wolf. Like, people don't understand how good he puts it. Yeah. Like, he drives a shit out of it and puts a shit out of it. And like, he would probably even admit, and he was on the podcast and said, like, he needs to improve his chipping and like,

greenside bunker play with his like, reroute of the swing. He doesn't, the easiest bunker shots are not the easiest for him. The best tour players get those things up and down, 80% of the time. He needs to reach that level. There's some stuff that he needs to learn and grow and clean out, but he can drive the shit out of it, he can hit his irons and he can put it and that's really good combination. His weirdest sense, some of that stuff sounds so fundamental, right?

Like so easy to... Like that's something that's the easiest stuff to add. Just like improving your bunker play seems... But not when you had the unique swing of contributes to it, right? So, I mean, obviously, he won as a... And he's supposed to be in college. Like, that's the whole thing. Like, people are quick to, you know,

put throw, shade at oxhave for the struggle he had. Start like, like, guys, it's supposed to be a high, not even supposed to be in college. Like he's supposed to be in high school. And the thing with like leaving early, like Bryson got all this, you know, Bryson comes out as a rookie and is like, he's doing great on the PJ tour, unbelievable season for rookie.

It's like 23. He's like, what on the speed? Like, like some perspective on the age of these guys is important. And they're not even supposed to be out there yet. And more Kawa and Wolf have already won on the tour. Keep all that in perspective. So they miss cuts, just understand that there's going to be ebbs and flows to it.

And they're going to have extremely successful PJTour careers. By the way, Norman Zhang might be the forgotten man. That a lot of people are saying DJ Pie in it is career by out driving him or not really out driving him. Well the whole thing is very it's very scummy. I was painted in a completely I don't even remember if I edited the video. You edited the video. Yeah I was painted in a horrible light completely misrepresented. So the whole video it sounds like a pat-read press conference. Exactly.

The whole camera angle, really. They were screwed. Yeah, they were putting all the pins on the left side so I couldn't get any of them. No, whatever. We're not getting into that. Do it. No, I want you to, I want you to read this video. So we did this video.

This is the last thing we're doing. We did this video on, it was how many clubs can Norman John hit past me, your driver. Passed my driver. A, your driver. Past my driver. A, I didn't have my driver, I had to use his driver, which was like this fucking piece, it was like a two by four. Did that materially affect how far you hit it?

No, because I hit it awesome. I hit it, it was this downhill part five, shaped left to right, and then right in the landing zone, there's kind of a, a second speed slot. No, this is important, but you can take it. A speed slot, right? No, this is important. Well, we're gonna get to this in a second. Why, none of this is important, but it's a speed slot. No, this is important. Well, we're gonna get, oh, I'm all fired up now.

So, we had to measure all of this based on a track man. There's the easiest way to do it, right? So I hit one, the track man says it went 254. In reality, it was the perfect shape for the whole. It caught the speed slot, rolled all the way down to the bottom of the hill. I had like, it was a part five, I had like, one 85 whole. It caught the speed slot, rolled all the way down to the bottom of the hill. I had like, it was a part five, I had like, one 85 in. It was crazy.

It was like a metaphor for DJ's game. He's playing a game that no one else is playing. Exactly. Did you see how hard that shot, like no, you had a, which is not a yard shot, you had a 30 yard fade into it. You didn't have to do that. That's what shook Norman up so much. I think he saw that was like, God,

I've never even thought to play the game that way. I just hit it as far as I can. And so he's just rope drawing all these clubs and he hits, well, like four iron pass by driver. Five iron to be clear. Then he hits five iron pass, one yard pass by driver. In reality though, in reality only one of the balls went past my driver, which was his driver.

So I therefore hit it farther than the Norman John. I would say the game is... No one else was playing. Except for when he has his driver. So I therefore hit it farther than Norman John. I would play the game. No one else was playing. Except for when he has his driver. So total exoneration. All right. Let's move on. This one is from Blake and I'm going to preface this with let's

throw the cat at Augusta out because that's the very moment of the year. Most thrilling moment of the year, outside of Zach Johnson's T-Box adventure at Augusta. I forgot about that. Most thrilling shit. What happens now? For those that missed it, I'm gonna tweet it again,

because it's my favorite video, but if you take a practice, we're the most iconic T-Box at and Augusta and accidentally hit the ball, hit a T-marker. It was just, who was he playing with? Was it a picture, maybe? Yeah, that sounds right. Mine's easy on this. It was Shane Lowry Sunday at the open.

He shot the 63 on Saturday and then he comes back and man I just feel like I would even put this up there with Tiger at Augusta. The thing that I remember that he said on Sunday night was that he woke up on Sunday morning and thought I don't know if I have what it takes to win a major championship. And I'm like man man, that is like the most relatable thing. Because I'm like, I wake up and I'm thinking, I don't know if I have what it takes to put two sentences together. Or I don't know if I have what it takes to be a good dad or a good husband or all these different things.

And so for him to do that in Northern Ireland and to walk up 18, it's always the best scene of the year. But I thought it was really even more special than normal because it was him doing it. That's why I withdrew for the second round of the USA. I was like, I don't know if I can do this. If I could play in the USA, I'm this year. I don't know if I have what it takes

to check the schedule and see how many days this turn of it is. I showed up today one ready to play 36 holes. I just noticed today. So for me, it was kind of a dual one, but I think in our business, whatever business, whatever business this is, you get to know a lot of these players and you become friends with a lot of them and forge relationships with a lot of them. Like, so seeing Adam Long win in Palm Springs, like I've known him for seven or eight years, and known him when he was grinding on the Hooters tour. Talk about someone like, I don't know if I have what it takes. Like someone who was just grinded and grinded and grinded and grinded and grinded at every single level, and was never like the guy. Was never the guy in college, was never the guy in college,

was never the guy in the mini tours, whatever. Seeing him step up on 18T against fucking Phil Nicholson and like hitting the shot, maybe like legitimately maybe the shot of the year onto that 18th green. That was sick. And then caching the putt was doubling your career earnings in one putt.

Completely surreal to watch. watch and thrilling is kind of an understanding. Complete ditto for Max Homa. That's where I was gonna go. Well as far as I go, see if you wanna talk through that one. Well, I was just gonna say hopefully people, like it got into perspective because the podcast that we did with him last fall was like one of my favorite

ever and the reaction to that from people was just, it was legitimately inspiring, it's funny, he's just a great personality in the game and has been through a lot and can speak on the struggles of professional golf and standing on a tee box and knowing where every out of bounds take is. And hitting that rock bottom

and coming back and winning a huge PGA tour event for $1.4 million, going toe to toe with Roy McElroy. And like, going through a reindeer lay. A reindeer lay where it trunks like icing him in the middle of the techs in the middle of the reindeer lay. And like going out and draining the putt and going out and winning club tourling on the 18th hole. Like I was just awesome to watch.

And I felt like the community, like whatever weird community we have that you know supports us. And like it felt like it was all rallied around that. Everyone was rooting for him based on the stories that they heard and from what we've been able to get to know from him. That was just freaking cool. That made like every week there is a story like that. It matters so much to these guys that went on tour

and to be able to have some perspective for what that meant for a person is what made that week really special. That's what I was gonna say is, it's funny to hear all three of those stories. And I know, I don't mean for it to be out of touch or whatever, because I know a lot of people are never gonna have the feeling of seeing one of their friends

win on tour, and I'm not saying that that is something that's realistic for everybody, but what you can distill all of those down to is the humanity of each of those moments, right? And I think it's, I mean, we talked about this about Rory earlier. I think it's a good lesson for people that are in high school or college. Like, once you get out there, just be real, hateable. Yeah, like just Be a human being. And that's kind of what I was getting at,

is like, you know, we dump on a lot of stuff, like, is it relatable to see Rory win $15 million? It's like, no. Is it relatable to see John Rom, win $5 million? No. All that stuff is so superficial, and it just seems like that's the stuff that the tours, like multiple tours, every tour,

like that seems like the stuff that they kind of put all the eggs in the basket of chasing to try to pump juice into these things, and it so fucking doesn't matter. And I know we're speaking from the perspective of the hardest of hardcore fans, but the human stuff is just the only thing that gets me to tune in, and it's the stuff that sticks with you.

My boys. Long. I love my boys. Love my boys. Love my boys. We're going to end it how we started it. I love my boys. We're going to wrap it at that.

Thank you for risking going into the Tommy Gainy situation here at the Holiday Inn. Someone had a question. Sorry. Someone had a question who lived the furthest under par this year. It's kind of Tommy Gain. it's kind of Tommy Gain. I just wanted to sneak that in. Well, I've learned my lesson now when you don't book through Tron Travel, like you end up just a very, like,

below average hotel experiences, Tron never will put us in a situation like this one. So I, you would think with the traveling I've done that I could book hotel. You should have just, howard at speed, peas and Jupiter, just we could have gone over there. That's true. You act like I didn hollered at speed, the fees in Jupiter, just we could have gone over there. That's true. You act like I didn't try that.

I got left on red. So all right, Porter, thanks for coming down, man. Great catching up. It's been way too long. I know we've, it's not that everyone's got their own pods. We just don't, we don't collaborate nearly the way that we used to in the past. I know.

It's fun to have a little reunion though. And with you guys, hopefully coming down here a little reunion though and with you guys hopefully come and come down here a little more. I'm building a new shed moving moving houses so maybe a little bigger shed Maybe we can do the next one in my new shed. That would be that would be sweet. Cheers. Thanks buddy Be the right club today. Yes. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most.

That is better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. Expect anything different.